Mass Effect: Neila'Zorah
by BlackScleraCyanIris
Summary: This is the first story following the adventures of Neila'Zorah, Tali and Shepard's oldest child. Neila and her combat squad investigate a small Human settlement on planet Hestad that has gone dark. Most characters are OCs, though Tali and Shepard will make an appearance. Rated M for violence and language. I don't own Mass Effect. (if I did, the ending would have been better.)
1. Planet Hestad

**Hello again. For all you who have read my two previous stories, Mass Effect: Reanimation, and Mass Effect: Recreation, you know that Shepard and Tali had four kids. I am now starting a storyline that follows the adventures of their oldest child, Neila'Zorah. Unlike my other stories, this one will be told in the first person from Neila's point of view.**

**This first story will only be a few chapters long, as it is a kind of starter story. Think of it as the fanfiction equivalent of a TV show's pilot episode. **

**The first chapter begins with Neila'Zorah and her military squad heading out to investigate a disturbance on a colony world. It will focus on providing some backstory for Neila as well as the planet she is on. The second chapter will be more action packed. **

**One last thing: For those of you who have read my other stories, you likely know about the species called the Irakagei. While they will always be apart of my Mass Effect fanfiction "canon," they will not appear in this first story at all, nor will they be mentioned from here on out. They will appear in the story after this one though.**

**I do not own Mass Effect, Bioware does. **

**March 14, 2219 (Human year)**

**Planet Hestad **

There's an old human saying that my father used to tell me when I was a little girl; "Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you."

"Hey, Ripley. You awake over there?"

While I knew that this silly old saying only applied to direct insults and not silly nicknames, I still had to repeat the expression in my head to keep from strangling the idiot human sitting across from me.

"Ripppleeey?"

The key flaw in the 'sticks and stones' saying is that while names may not hurt me, they can still piss me off. Too bad it didn't offer any advice on that little annoyance.

"For the last time," I snapped, "That is not my name!"

The obnoxious human sitting across from me on board the C-65 Harvester IFV was Sargent Peyton Hood, a real button pusher. The nickname "Ripley," originated from a movie character played by a Human actress from the mid twentieth to early twenty first century. Her name was…something Weaver. I can never remember her first name. In any case, this 'Ripley' character was one of the actress's most famous roles, and Hood thought that I resembled her.

"I have to say," Corporal Silin, a Salarian, said, "the Sargent is right. I saw those movies, and you do resemble this "Ripley" character quite a bit."

Corporal Silin was our combat squad's primary tech expert.

"Except I'm a Quarian," I said.

"You watch old human movies, Silin," Private Gartus asked. Gartus was a Turian.

"Oh, yeah," Silin affirmed, "I watch vids from the distant past of every race. It helps me understand what they thought about back then."

"So how does she resemble this human actress of yours, Sargent," Gartus asked Hood.

"Don't encourage him," I said.

"Well," Peyton answered, "She's about the same height, and has a similar hairstyle."

When it came to my appearance, I couldn't deny that I stood out among a crowd of my own people. For starters, I stood at a hundred and eighty centimeters in height, which was quite uncommon for a Quarian woman. Even the men of my kind rarely grew taller than me.

My other distinguishing feature was my curly hair, which was even less common among Quarians than it was for Humans.

Most people did not know that I got those traits from my Human father, Gabriel Shepard. Sure, a lot of people know that he is my father, but what they don't know is that he is my actual biological father. Officially, the records say that my mother, Tali'Zorah had undergone artificial insemination with Quarian DNA. This was a lie made to make my life, as well as the lives of my siblings easier.

You see, while I do not have any Human traits that are not possible for Quarians to possess, and am therefore totally Quarian, many people might view me as some kind of freak of nature and alienate me. It was easier to live with the story that Shepard was my surrogate father. I was comfortable with the fact that I knew the truth.

While my father did not have curly hair himself, it was a common trait among his family. His mother, Hannah Shepard had it. Apparently, many of the women on his side of the family grew really tall as well, though I was the only one among my sisters who was this tall.

"I doubt that this 'Weaver' actress had three fingers, bowed calves, and grey skin," I said.

"Alright, people," Lieutenant Hasanna, our Asari CO interjected, "Nix the trivia. It's time to focus on our mission."

For the past three months, I've been a member of the Hestad planetary defense force, a multispecies military branch formed on Hestad.

Planet Hestad is a unique world. It was discovered about twenty-three years ago by human explorers. It is a garden world, and has almost the exact same diameter as the Human homeworld, Earth, (give or take a few hundred meters), and has about the same mass and gravity. It orbits a G2 star, has two moons, and is the third star in its system. It has many different geographical features, such as glaciers, deserts, forests, oceans, tundra, all the things you'd expect to find on a garden world.

What makes this planet unique is its biosphere. Like many biospheres, the life native to Hestad is carbon based and oxygen breathing, but the feature that makes it unusual is its amino acid proteins. Most races are based on levo-amino acids, though a few, like the Turians and my own species were dextro-amino acid based. Hestad's life was a mixture of both. The local flora and fauna could be eaten by both levo and dextro races with little to no negative reactions.

When this unique feature was discovered, the Citadel races decided to make the planet a joint colony. Members from nearly every species set up settlements on Hestad. Several small cities, most unique to a single race, were scattered across the globe. Hestad's largest city, simply called The Hub, is the capital city. It is inhabited my individuals of almost every race. Asari, Humans, Turians, Salarians, Volus, Quarians, Geth, Krogan, Batarians, Elcor, Hanar, Drell, and so on.

While Hestad is located in the Attican Traverse, out near the Terminus Systems, the Citadel Council has put a sizable defense fleet in place to defend it. The planet's multispecies population and unique biosphere have made the planet a symbol of cooperation, and they would not let it fall to anyone.

While the fleet defended Hestad from orbit, the Hestad Planetary Defense Force was formed to deal with threats on the surface. While not as exclusive as the Spectres, the soldiers of the HPDF were chosen from individuals who, at the very least, showed real promise.

I was offered a position on the HPDF after a skirmish with half a legion of Vorcha on Planet Lerikah, a Quarian Colony, but that's a whole 'nother story.

At Hassana's order, all ten of us aboard the Harvester lit up our omni-tools. An image of a small settlement appeared on our holographic screens.

"Roughly nineteen hours ago," Hasanna began, "contact was lost with a small Human settlement, Crystal Sands. At first, we suspected that they were having trouble with their comm systems."

"But…" Peyton asked expectantly.

"But," Hasanna continued, "When a group of civilians were sent out to help, they disappeared as well. We suspect that the settlement may have been attacked, but we are not sure who may be responsible."

According to the specs, Crystal Sands was indeed a small settlement. Its population was barely over a hundred people, and the entire town consisted of a few prefab houses. Apparently, Crystal Sands was set up to survey mineral deposits in the Melange Badlands.

The Melange Badlands was a region located in the Kakara Desert, a large swath of hot, barren wasteland situated in Hestad's equatorial region. Because of its unpleasant temperatures, Melange Badlands had yet to be fully explored.

"Yeesh," I said as I looked at the average temperature of the Kakara Desert, "And I thought it was hot on Rannoch."

"Think it might have been mercenaries," Corporal Keranya, a female Drell asked. Keranya was a very skillful sentinel. Her technical expertise was only outmatched by her biotic prowess.

"I don't know," Private Lenix, a Turian weapons specialist, said, "The Council's got Hestad better guarded than a Volus's bank account. Attacking such an important Council asset is just plain…stupid."

I always liked Lenix. He was always very observant.

"Maybe it was those biotic underground wackos," Peyton said, "They seem crazy enough to attack anywhere."

For once, Peyton had actually said something intelligent. Until recently, the biotic underground had not been a serious problem. Over the years, however, their numbers have grown significantly, and rumor had it that they had access to more resources than the Council had predicted.

They had been declared enemies of the council when a large group of them had killed several high-ranking members of the Turian military. They were apparently upset with how the Turians viewed biotics, separating biotic members of their own kind from the rest of their soldiers. Ever since then, they've continued to commit crime after crime in the name of biotic supremacy.

Just the thought of those monsters made my implants burn. Because of them, more and more people were starting to fear biotics.

"Perhaps they were attacked by harvesters," Silin suggested, "Harvester attacks are not uncommon out here."

"Ah, who cares who it was," Rumbled the Krogan on our team, Forsan Krusch, "We'll still kick their asses."

Three guesses as to what his specialty was.

After about half an hour of speculation and small talk, our Harvester hover tank entered the Karaka Desert. It wasn't long after that that we arrived at the Melange Badlands. Luckily for us, the hoodoos and other rough rock formations that made up the badlands were well spaced, at least in this area, otherwise, our hover tank would have to do a lot of jumping.

We wouldn't have much of a problem with that if it weren't for Private Jilor, another Salarian on our team. About a month ago, we had found out the hard way that Jilor got motion sickness very easily, at least when it came to uneven terrain. If we were in a wheeled vehicle, like a Mako rover, we'd never be able to relax around him. Jilor had nearly ended up with a black eye then, as Krusch had received the full brunt of his uneasy stomach.

As we entered a wide, flat area with a large rock formation in the center of it, Private Linseret, another Turian who was manning the Harvester's main laser cannon, spotted something.

"Hey, Peterson," Linsert called to the human woman driving the tank, "Stop the tank!"

With a sudden jolt, the Harvester halted dead in its tracks, (if it left tracks.)

"Ohh," Jilor groaned.

"Don't you dare," Krusch growled.

"Take a deep breath," I advised.

"What's going on," Hasanna asked.

"Take a look," Linsert said, tapping his omni-tool.

Linsert had us link our omni-tools to the cannon's external camera.

The cannon was aimed at the top of the rock formation roughly a hundred and twenty meters in front of us. As the camera zoomed it, we could see people standing on the top of it.

There were about fifteen individuals on top of the eighty-meter high rock formation, all of them Human, and they were all waving at us. It appeared to us as if they were trying to warn us to stay away.

"That doesn't look promising," Peyton said.

"Are they from the settlement," Lenix asked.

No one got the chance to speculate, because Peterson alerted us of a large seismic reading.

Peterson started to move the tank and Linsert rotated the cannon to get a look around. He had clearly spotted something, given the way he reacted.

"Oh, shit," he shouted, "Threshe…"

We didn't have time to react before the object of his concern burst from the ground to our right and collided with our tank, sending it us tumbling.

Our Harvester crashed into a small rock formation, and we had landed upside down.

The collision had nearly knocked me out, as I was rather dizzy after the crash.

"What the fuck just happened," Someone yelled.

I remember hearing the sound of retching, no doubt Jilor succumbing to motion sickness again.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Krusch exclaimed.

"What happened," I groaned as I got my bearings.

"Everyone get out of your seats," Hasanna ordered. I looked around and saw that the Asari commander was standing upside down from my perspective. She was helping an unconscious Linsert out of the gunners seat.

I was the first out of my seat. As I undid the harness, I surrounded myself in a mass reducing biotic field to prevent myself from falling to the ceiling to fast. I was able to turn myself over as I slowly fell.

"Zorah," Hasanna said, "Open the port hatch and take a look outside."

"Yes ma'am," I replied.

I hurried over to the front of the tank. Peterson had just struggled her way out of the driver's seat.

I opened the port hatched and lifted myself up to get a view. The instant I poked my head out of the tank, the thing that hit us burst forth from the ground about twenty meters away from us.

After a two-second look at the thing, I dropped back into the tank.

"Thresher Maw," I exclaimed.

**Hope that chapter was a good start for you.**

**For those of you who don't know how Shepard was able to have children with Tali, read Mass Effect: Reanimation. It explains the mechanics of it. If I didn't explain it well enough in Reanimation, just let me know, and I'll explain it better if I need to.**

**Trivia: Planet Hestad orbits the star Harkonnen. The Harkonnen system is located in a cluster called the Topaz Nebula, which is situated between the Kepler Verge and the Ninmah Cluster. It is roughly nine hundred light years from the Kepler Verge.**

**Trivia: The planet's name, Hestad is an anagram. See if you can solve it ;)**


	2. Red Worm

**Here we go. The action packed chapter. Enjoy!**

It didn't take long for the Thresher Maw to attack our Harvester tank while we were still aboard. I won't bother you with the details of how we were able to get away from it, but I will say that the ruined tank proved to be an excellent diversion.

While the overgrown worm busied itself with eating our tank, we ran like hell towards the larger rock outcropping that the Humans were sitting on top of. We had to run about two hundred meters to it, but we couldn't run very fast, as some of us sustained some injuries. Being the biggest, Krusch was carrying Lensirt, who was still unconscious in his left arm, as well as Jilor, who was suspended over the Krogan's right shoulder. The queasy Salarian had broken his arm.

"I swear, Salarian," Krusch growled, "If you puke one more time, you're worm food."

Peyton and I were hauling Keranya by her arms. The Drell had suffered some internal damage from the impact. We had stabilized her with medigel, but she was in no condition to move on her own.

"I guess we know what happened to the colony," Peyton said, panting.

"Less talking and more moving," I snapped.

I was so angry that we had to run into a Thresher Maw. As we ran for the rocky outcropping ahead of us, all I could think about was how unlucky I was to run into a Thresher Maw.

Ever since childhood, I have never liked Thresher Maws. In fact, I despised them. When I was a little girl, there were random nights when I couldn't sleep. On nights like those, I would get up and hang out with my parents for a while, who would often watch vids late at night when me and my brother and two sisters were asleep. Watching the vids with them helped me get sleepy.

One night, however, when I was seven years old, my body couldn't have picked a worse night to stay awake. The movie that my parents were watching that night was a horror movie about a genetically enhanced pack of Thresher Maws that got loose and terrorized an entire city. That vid gave me nightmares for over two months, as well as a strong hatred for worms, large or small.

_And now I've finally met one. Aren't I fucking lucky?!_

Before long, we reached the outcropping, though it was too steep for us to climb. Given that the Crystal Sands settlement was located somewhere on the other end of the outcropping, I figured that it must have been less steep on the other side. We couldn't really afford to make our way around and up though, as we were entrenched between some very uneven rocks, and the Thresher Maw had finished eating the Harvester.

"Everyone check weapons," Hasanna ordered.

Unfortunately, we did not have many weapons on us, as many of them had to be left behind on the Harvester. Most of us ran with whatever weapons we had on us. Krusch was the most heavily armed, carrying a rocket launcher and his favorite shotgun, a Graal spike thrower upgraded with an omni-blade and a high velocity shotgun barrel.

Everyone else's weapons were pretty standard. I was armed only with an Apex plasma pistol.

Since the Reaper war, weapons and armor have continued to become more advanced. Direct energy weapons were becoming more common, and standard kinetic weapons were equipped with advanced recoil dampeners to compensate for their higher recoil, which was a side effect from their higher velocity ammunition.

Thermal clips have become much more efficient. Until about ten years ago, thermal clips were ejected and replaced on the battlefield more frequently. A Widow anti-tank rifle like the one Lieutenant Hasanna had on her could fire twelve rounds without having to eject the clip. My plasma pistol's clip allowed fifty shots to be fired.

Armor and kinetic barriers had become tougher and more efficient. Most suits of armor of the present day had been equipped with electromagnetic screening in addition to K-barriers. EM screening provided protection against energy weapons, while K-barriers protected against high velocity rounds.

"Did anyone notice anything unusual about that Maw," Silin asked as he inserted a clip into his Salarian made Fang assault rifle.

"Anything unusual," I asked incredulously as I connected my visor to my suit's helmet, "I was too busy running from it."

"I did," Krusch answered, which surprised me because I never pegged him for observation, "It's bigger than most other maws. Not as big as Kalros back on Tuchanka, but it's still big."

"Well, there is that," Silin said, "but it was also red."

"Whoop-tee-fuckin'-do," Peyton retorted, "Who cares if it's red?"

"It could mean we've encountered a new subspecies of Thresher Maw," Silin answered.

"Whatever," Krusch grunted, "I'm still killing it!"

"Now don't go running off out there," Hasanna commanded, "It's going to take all of us to bring that thing down!"

A voice suddenly screamed at us from above.

"HEEEEEYYYYY! HELLLLOOOOO! ARE YOU OKAY DOWN THERE?!"

All of us turned our attention to the Humans sitting on top of the outcropping. In all of the excitement, I had forgotten that they were up there.

Peyton turned to me.

"Keep an eye on her for me for a sec, would you Ripley?" He indicated the injured Keranya sitting between us.

"Sure," I said.

Peyton changed position to a narrow yet taller rock. He put his hands around his mouth and yelled back up to the Humans.

"WE'RE ALIVE DOWN HERE, BUT WE'VE GOT A FEW INJURED PEOPLE DOWN HERE? ARE YOU GUYS FROM THE CRYSTAL SANDS SETTLEMENT?"

"YEAH! THAT THING KILLED EVERYONE ELSE! WE'RE ALL THAT'S LEFT!"

"ANYONE HURT UP THERE?"

"NO! JUST THIRSTY AND SUNBURNED!" A different voice called down that time, "LOOK! YOU GUYS NEED TO GET TO HIGHER GROUND! THAT THING WILL EAT YOU IF YOU STAY THERE!"

"HOW DID YOU GUYS GET UP THERE?" Hasanna shouted, "WE CAN'T SEE ANY WAY UP FROM HERE!"

Yet another voice called down to us, this one a woman. "THERE'S A PATH UP HERE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROCK!"

As Peyton prepared to shout again, the Thresher Maw burst from the ground in front of the outcropping. Peyton had nearly lost his balance and fallen. The overgrown worm opened its mouth wide, and its big blue tongue shot forth towards Peyton.

Peyton jumped off of the rock as the tongue smashed into it, the force of the impact causing his perch to shatter. He had landed right in front of Keranya and moved to her side again, placing his arms under her right arm.

"We gotta move her," he said. I grabbed the injured Drell's left arm and the two of us hoisted her to her feet. She yelled out in pain.

As the Thresher retracted its tongue, the rest of the team opened fire on it. Several of Krusch's rockets struck the giant worm's side, destroying four of its many "legs."

The worm shrieked in response, and turned to Krusch. It reared its head back and spit a glob of acid at the Krogan, who barley managed to jump out of the way.

The Maw directed its attention at Peyton, Keranya, and me. Keranya continued to moan in agony. It was obvious that she had heavy internal bleeding.

Suddenly, Keranya was yanked from our arms. We turned to find that one of the Thresher Maws tentacles had wrapped it around her legs. We were unable to stop it as the worm retreated back underground, taking our Drell companion with it.

"Shit," Lenix spat.

I mentally cursed myself for letting Keranya slip through my fingers like that. It took all I had not to scream out in rage.

We waited for the Thresher to surface in silence. After little more than a minute, it burst from the ground in front of us again. This time, it was looking to my right where most of my team was.

Krusch brought his rocket launcher up again and fired one shot. Much to our surprise, the Thresher Maw moved its head to the side, evading the rocket as it closed in.

"What," Krusch shouted, "No Way!"

Everyone let loose with whatever weapon they had. My first attack was a strong warp field directed at the worm's left "claw" like structure next to its mouth. Greenish-brown blood spurted from the claw, causing the Maw to shriek again. I charged up another attack, but I was interrupted.

The Humans above called out to us again.

"LOOK OUT! BEHIND YOU!"

I turned around and saw that another of the Maw's tentacles was sneaking up on Peyton and me. I shouted at Peyton to get out of the way.

As the bright blue appendage lashed out at Peyton, I cut loose with an incinerate strike from both of my omni-tools. The tentacle burst into flames, causing the Maw to shriek once more. The worm retracted its burning arm and retreated into the ground again.

"That thing," I yelled, panting, "just decoyed us!"

"What do you mean," Peterson asked.

"It used its own head as a diversion," I explained. "It was going to attack Peyton and me from behind while it had us distracted."

"You're kidding," Jilor said.

"It's smarter than any Thresher Maw I've fought," Krusch said, "Did you see the way that it dodged my missile like that?"

"Yeah," Lenix said, "Maybe Silin's right. Maybe we are dealing with a new kind of Thresher Maw."

"'Whoop-tee-fucking-do indeed'," Silin mocked. I admit, Silin was smart, but he had an annoying habit of rubbing it in people's faces.

"Fuck you, salamander," Peyton snapped.

"WATCH OUT!" The Humans above us shouted at us again.

This time, one of the Thresher's tentacles suddenly shot up from behind our rocky barrier and lashed out at us. The appendage hit Hasanna over the head, knocking her down. She quickly reacted by jumping back to her feet as the probing tendril struck at her again.

Peyton opened up with his Valkyrie assault rifle. The tentacle exploded in a mess of brown blood. The bloody stump retreated back into the ground.

"Damn it," I shouted, "This thing is pissing me off!"

The Thresher Maw exploded from the desert floor yet again. This time, it was much further away. It took me a second to notice it, but it was holding a huge bolder in its mouth.

"Oh, you Bosh'tet," I said quietly.

The red worm reared its head back, and shot it forward again, launching the boulder as it did so. The huge projectile impacted faster than I expected, crushing Lenix and Peterson against the rock wall behind us. The Maw retreated back into the ground before we could counter attack.

Apparently, that boulder impact shook our rock outcropping severely, because seconds after it hit, we all heard what sounded like screaming, and it was getting closer by the second.

"KYLE!" One of the settlement survivors shouted.

We looked up and saw a falling figure. The impact of the Thresher's boulder had knocked one of the survivors off balance, causing him to fall. From what I could tell, it was one of the two surviving minors.

My mind almost went blank with panic, but an idea struck me.

As the kid fell, I took a step back and charged up my biotics. I watched carefully as the boy fell, as my plan required careful timing.

"Oh, Goddess," Hasanna shouted.

As the falling Human approached the ground, I ran forward to the edge of the rocks. As my foot reached the edge, I bent over and shot out toward the falling Human with a biotic charge.

I grabbed the boy and midair, and his constant screaming was replaced by a yelp of surprise and confusion. As soon as I grabbed him, I wrapped us in a mass-reducing field to slow our rate of descent.

I wasn't able to make the landing any less rough. We hit the ground rolling on our sides. It took me a moment to stand up, but when I did, I helped the boy up to his feet. He looked at me incredulously.

"Jesus," he said, "How did you do that?"

Going on his appearance, I guessed that the boy, Kyle, was probably around fifteen or sixteen years old.

Before I could answer, we felt the ground shake.

I looked to the outcropping. Kyle and I had landed a good ninety meters from it. There was no way we could make it by running.

"Shit," I said, "I think I just got us into a worse situation."

I could hear the screams of my comrades, but I couldn't tell what they were saying.

"What now," Kyle asked me.

My mind was racing. I was trapped in a situation that I've hopped to avoid all of my life, in the presence of a creature I feared more than any other.

Suddenly, the great red Thresher Maw shot up right behind us.

A new idea popped into my mind, but I really didn't like it.

I turned to Kyle and hit him with a mass-reducing biotic field. He yelped as he was lifted off of the ground, wrapped in a blue aura of dark energy.

"What the hell are you doing," he shouted.

"Saving your life," I said, "You might want to curl up!"

As the Thresher Maw looked down at us, I swung my arms toward the outcropping, and Kyle flew towards it. The biotic field I put him in slowed his velocity and reduced any damage from his impact.

The giant worm's shadow loomed over me, and I knew there was no escaping it. Rather than try to run, I activated my tech armor and crouched down. At the last second, I wrapped myself up in a biotic barrier.

In an instant, the ground shook violently as the world suddenly went dark. I was quickly covered in sticky Thresher saliva, and was slurped backward into the cramped, wet darkness behind me.

I screamed as I was pulled into the body of the worm, but I can't remember if I actually said anything or not. It doesn't matter.

All I could think of was how unfair it was that I was going to die in the one way I did not want to die.

**Hah! I bet none of you expected THAT, did you? Don't worry, though. This story is not over. **

**Trivia: The standard armor worn by the Hestad Planetary Defense Force is Kassa Fabrication Colossus Armor. The armor is equipped with powerful kinetic barriers, electromagnetic screens, dense armor plates, a fully functional environmental system and cup holders (Just kidding about that last one;))**

**Trivia: Neila's armor is a variant of the Colossus armor designed for Quarians. Unlike other members of her species, Neila doesn't bother decorating her armor with fabrics, as she believes they would just get torn up in combat. She wears medium armor.**


	3. Her Worst Nightmare

**I bet you all are wondering how the hell Neila will get out of this one! Well here's the next chapter.**

As I slid down the huge Thresher Maw's esophagus, my anger at the situation rapidly escalated. I decided that I wasn't going to go down without trying to resist. With the push of a button, a disposable silicon-carbide hook formed over my right hand, and I sunk it into whatever mound of flesh I could get a hold of. My descent into the Thresher Maw was halted.

"No you don't, you bosh'tet!"

A short shriek sounded though the worm as I hung on with all of my might to the wall of the worm's esophagus. Obviously, it had felt what I did. Suddenly, I felt force as if I was being pushed upward. I deduced that the Thresher was moving back underground. This was affirmed when I found that I was no longer hanging by my omni-hook, but lying on my stomach. Suddenly, the worm accelerated forward through the soil of Hestad, frequently changing direction. It was a good thing that the worm's esophagus was so tight, otherwise, I would have been jerked around violently.

"AAAGHHH! SLOW DOWN YOU…"

The Thresher Maw shot upward again, and I was once again hanging on a vertical wall of flesh. It's shrieking was deafening from the inside, and its smell was nauseating.

The Thresher Maw's esophagus walls suddenly expanded slightly, and then constricted again, pressing me against the wall hard.

"AAAGH! HEY!"

The worm's walls expanded again then constricted. It repeated this pattern several times, squashing me against the wall, attempting do dislodge and swallow me.

"OW! AGHH! SHIT! LINN'GAN!"

Luckily, my tech armor and colossus battle suit kept me from getting crushed, and my biotic focus added additional protection.

"Damn it…OW," I exclaimed as the wall hit me again, "I…OW… am not goi…OW…ing down like…AGGH…this!"

A sudden impact shook the Thresher Maw, causing it to shriek once more. The rest of the team outside must have continuing the fight, and Krusch had just scored a hit.

When the Maw regained its composure, its esophagus expanded again, but this time it did not constrict. I soon heard a gurgling noise that swiftly grew louder. Almost instantly, a large volume liquid washed over me and shot past me.

The Maw had just regurgitated another shot of acid, likely in response to Krusch's attack. Fortunately for me, my tech armor shielded me from most of it, and my suit's integrity held. My visor was covered in opaque acid and saliva.

"THAT'S IT!"

With a newfound determination, I decided that I was going to stick it to this worm, one way or another. As the esophagus walls closed on me again, I activated the omni-tool on my left hand and initiated a combat scan. Within minutes, I had a full bio-readout of the Thresher Maw.

According to the readout, I was located a good ten meters from its mouth, closer to it than I thought. Evidently, Thresher Maws swallow their prey slower than I thought.

I quickly thought of Keranya, who was swallowed several minutes before me. I had quickly abandoned the idea of going after her, as she will have likely reached the stomach by now. Even if she hadn't, the walls of the monster's esophagus would have magnified her internal damage. As much as I hated to acknowledge it, she was either doomed or already dead.

Before I could take further action, the Thresher Maw retreated into the ground again, and charged through it once more, changing direction several times. The G-force being inflicted on me was intense, and it was all I could do not to black out.

Before long, the Thresher Maw broke through the surface again, reassuming the vertical position.

"Okay," I said, "Now or never!"

I commanded the 3D bio-map of the Thresher Maw to be displayed in my helmet's HUD. Seeing as how I couldn't see very well, I would need it to guide me. With a flex of my left arm, another omni-hook flashed into form, and I sunk it into the esophagus wall behind me. I deactivated the hook on my right arm, and turned to face the other direction. The Thresher suddenly swerved its body, almost causing me to loose my grip. Another rocket had impacted the Thresher, shaking up the place and causing it to shriek.

"Damn it, Krusch," I cursed, "can't you hold off on the rockets for a second?"

I had thought about contacting my team through radio, but I decided that I would only be a distraction. If I didn't succeed in bringing this worm down from the inside, then I would have to hope they could do it from out there, slim as their odds were. If they knew that I was still alive, they would hesitate to fire, and that would endanger them further.

As soon as the titanic worm calmed its motions, I flexed my right arm again, and a sharp omni-blade appeared. I focused my biotic power into the searing hot blade, and slashed at the wall of tissue in front of me. The Maw screamed even louder this time, jerking its body.

Ignoring the disorienting motions as best I could, I pushed my way into the bleeding hole in front of me, pulling myself out of the beast's throat and in between it's tight muscles.

I enlarged the bio-map on my HUD to get a better look. After a brief scan of it, I determined that the best thing to do was to move to the beast's spinal column and sever it.

"Time to move!"

I surrounded myself in an annihilation field, weakening the muscle mounds that were attempting to crush me. I flexed both of my arms, and a pair of omni-claws popped into existence.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, I immediately began digging my way through the flesh of great red Thresher Maw. My annihilation field served to weaken the muscle tissue around me while I slashed through the muscle and nerve cords. Whenever I came across a cord that was too thick, I destroyed it with a warp field.

It took me a while to reach the spine, as my efforts were clearly causing the Thresher Maw great discomfort. As I cut my way through its flesh, it shrieked and jerked. It had dug its way through the ground several times and burst back up and struck itself against a hard surface. I guessed that it was the outcropping my comrades were entrenched in. The force of its blows put a lot of strain on my suit. After five blows, my kinetic barrier generators malfunctioned, and my EM shields soon followed.

The crushing force of its efforts was knocking the wind out of me, but I was determined to end this thing.

Eventually, I had finally made my way to the Thresher Maw's spinal column. It was an incredibly thick length of bone and nerve.

"Finally," I gasped, nearly out of breath, "You're mine now, you bosh'tet."

As the Thresher Maw burst its way through the surface again, I took a deep breath and focused my biotic power. With a thrust of my right hand, a powerful biotic warp shredded a good portion of the monster's spine, effectively destroying its connection to most of its body.

With a final shriek, the Thresher Maw suddenly stopped jerking. A nauseating sensation hit my stomach as it collapsed to the desert floor. I was grateful that it had not fallen back underground, as I would have a hard time digging my way out then.

As I began to calm down, however, a tone sounded in my suit. Apparently, in one of the Thresher's attempts to crush me, my suit's CO2 scrubbers had taken damage. I had only ten minutes before the oxygen in my suit was gone completely.

I looked over the bio-map again, and could find no easy way out of the monster. I had not killed the Thresher maw, only paralyzed it. It still had nerve connections to the muscles in its face. If I tried to get out through its mouth, there was a chance it would crush me. I couldn't simply break my way out of its back either, as the worm's natural plate armor would be too thick to cut through.

I soon discovered that the Thresher's external armor was weakest at its head. Not wasting any time, I began digging through muscle tissue again, following the path of the spinal column. I was so exhausted, that I had to inject myself with adrenaline just to keep going.

I had reached the head with three and a half minutes to go. I had determined that not only was this the best means of escape, but it was also a perfect way to finish the bastard worm off.

With a series of warp fields I broke through the Thresher Maw's skull, and began digging through its brain.

As I cut my way through the Thresher Maw's brain, I felt incredibly satisfied. I found myself cursing the worm as it gave off several weak shrieks as it died.

"This…is what you get…for haunting my nightmares…as a child!"

I severed every part of the brain I could, slashing away with my omni-blades, burning it with my annihilation field, shredding it with warp fields, any way I could.

"This…is for the inhabitants…of Crystal Sands…" I screamed with a swing of my blade.

"This…is for Keranya…" I yelled with a warp field.

"This one is for Lenix…" I cried with a reave, "…and Peterson," I screamed with a cryo blast."

I calmed down for a second and gathered as much biotic power as I could manage. Using the bio-map, I determined which direction to aim. Using both hands, I charged up a dark sphere.

"And this…" I yelled as I launched the sphere toward the remains of the worm's equivalent of a frontal lobe, "Is for EATING ME!"

The dark sphere tore through the rest of the Thresher Maw's brain and continued on through its skull.

After taking a deep breath, I notice that the air tasted very thin. A glance at my HUD told me that I had a little less than a minute until my oxygen was gone. Despite my exhaustion, I dug my way through the pulverized mass of the Thresher Maw's brain and soon found my way to the hole in its head.

With a strong push forward, I broke through the hole in the Thresher Maw's head. I still couldn't see out of my helmet because of the bodily juices obscuring my visor. Without hesitation, I disengaged the visor's clasps and yanked it off. I took a big breath of air as I threw my visor away.

Unfortunately, the breath of air wasn't very fresh, as the stench of dead space worm flooded my nostrils. Just the same, I was so happy to be alive. The light of the sun had shocked my eyes after being in total darkness for what felt like hours. I soon learned that I had only been in there for about twenty-four minutes.

I was panting like a ragged varren.

"Ripley," a familiar voice said to me, "Is that you?"

I opened my eyes and looked up. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the light, but I quickly discovered that the corpse of the Thresher that I was still sitting in was surrounded by the rest of my team, along with Kyle, the boy whom I had saved from falling earlier.

_Good. He's alive. _

"Did…" Linsert stammered, clearly conscious again, "Did you do this?"

"Holy shit," Silin exclaimed.

I had guessed that they had been standing there for a while. I noticed that Peyton, Krusch, and Lieutenant Hasanna had blood and pieces of worm tissue adorning their armor, likely caused by my biotic dark sphere.

"Hah," Krusch laughed loudly, "Now I've seen everything!"

"By the Goddess, Sargent Zorah," Hasanna said, "We thought you were dead!"

I was so out of breath, that I couldn't say anything. All I wanted to do was get out of the body of the giant worm.

Using what strength I still had, I pulled myself out of the gaping cavity in the worm's head, and carefully slid down its face onto the ground. I landed on my feet, but quickly collapsed on my ass.

The others rushed over to me. Silin looked me over with an omni-tool.

"Are you alright, Sargent Major?"

After a few gasps, I was finally able to form a sentence.

"Think so." I looked up at the Thresher corpse behind me and pointed at it with my thumb. "He's not, though," I said with a smile.

Everyone looked at me silently for a moment, and Krusch finally spoke up.

"Hah ha," he laughed at the top of his voice, "You've got a quad, Quarian! Taking a Maw down…from the INSIDE!"

The Human boy, Kyle moved to me, dumbstruck that I was still alive.

"You…you're…"

I could see tears forming in his black eyes. One of them ran down his olive skin.

"I can't believe it," Silin said, "You've been eaten by a Thresher Maw and lived! This is incredible. What was it like in there."

While I've always respected Silin's scientific curiosity, it tended to make him a bit tactless and annoying. I slowly turned to face him with a very severe expression, letting my face answer him.

The smile on his face quickly faded. "Right," he said, "shutting up now."

Kyle continued to stammer.

"Come on, kid," Linsert said, "articulate!"

I sat up and got to my feet. I was still a little shaky, but I managed to stay up. I looked down at the Human adolescent. I must have been an amazon to him.

He looked at me for a moment, and quickly embraced me, squeezing almost all of the breath out of me that I had regained.

"You're alive," He cried, "I thought you were dead!"

"Yeah," Peyton said to me, "He's been feeling guilty about you getting eaten and all. Little runt just wouldn't shut up."

"I see," I wheezed, "its okay kid. I'm fine. Could you let go of me?"

"Oh, sorry," Kyle said. I inhaled as much air as I could. Kyle was suddenly horrified when he looked down at his clothes, which were covered in Thresher parts.

"Holy shit," Another voice said from behind Hasanna.

The group of survivors from the settlement had climbed down from the top of the outcropping. Including Kyle, there was twelve of them; seven men and five women. Each had various skin tones and hair colors. It was always amazing to me how diverse Humans were in external appearance.

"You killed it," one of the women said, "You really killed it."

"You saved us," one of the other men said.

"And you saved my son's life!" I could tell that the man who said that was Kyle's father. His face looked very similar, and both of them shared the same solid black eyes. "Thank you so much!"

I blushed at the sudden rush of gratitude, as I wasn't used to it. I had no doubt that my father has completely adapted to it though.

"You're welcome," I said. I reached up and pulled the rest of my helmet off, letting my curly hair fall down to my upper back. I then proceeded to wipe off the pieces of worm from my armor.

"Damn it," I cursed, "I fucking HATE worms!"

**Hope you liked that chapter. The next one will take place a few days after this incident.**


	4. A Call Home

**Okay people. This is the second to last chapter. It takes place a few days after Neila killed the Thresher Maw.**

**March 18, 2219**

**Fort Henaras, HPDF Primary Surface Operations Base**

**Solus Mountains**

**Planet Hestad**

After my usual morning biotic exercises, I took a quick shower and headed back to the enlisted personnel barracks. Each barrack was large, and two of them were assigned to each race, one for males, and the other for females. No surprise that the Asari only got one barrack.

After every exercise, I like to rest my tired nerves and muscles in the barracks by checking out the news nets on my omni-tool, so as to keep up with events.

It had been four days since my rumble with the great red Thresher Maw. Since our Harvester had been eaten, we had to radio for a few shuttles to pick us up, along with the Crystal Sands survivors.

Major General Baratus, the Commanding Officer for the Fort Henaras military base, was so surprised with the mission report, that I could have sworn I saw a slight change in the stony Turian's facial expressions.

For now, our team was on standby until we found some suitable replacements for the team members we lost. I was particularly upset with the loss of Sargent Lenix; his foresight and cool composure had helped us out of more than a few nasty missions in the past.

It did not take long for word to spread about me. I swear, scuttlebutt gets around faster than scale itch on a pack of amorous varren(an expression I picked up from Urdnot Wrex when I was a teenager, although his choice of words was a bit more colorful.) Not only had I gained a reputation on the base, the rest of Council Space had heard of it, thanks to the survivors from Crystal Sands.

My time in front of news cameras was brief, as talking about my experience inside the Thresher Maw was not something I wanted to talk about too often. In any case, I wasn't much for publicity; that was more of a thing for my youngest sister, Vala.

After the battle, we learned from the survivors that the giant red Thresher Maw had attacked Crystal sands in the middle of the night while most people were sleeping. The settlers panicked and scattered in practically every direction. To make things worse, the Thresher Maw knocked out the settlement's comm tower in its rampage, effectively cutting them off from the rest of the planet. Lucky for us, our omni-tools had better reception than the settlers'.

I lied on my bed and watched the news nets on my omni-tool. I was surprised to see that another attack had been made by the Biotic Underground. About twenty-six hours ago, a group of the dark energy-wielding fanatics had attempted to attack the Geth ambassador on the Citadel. Luckily, it had been foiled, although the details on how were still sketchy.

"Shit," I said out loud.

Kleena'Taris, the Quarian soldier who occupied the bunk above mine, poked her head down. "Something wrong, worm reaver?"

"Damn straight," I said, "Did you see the news? The underground struck again!"

"Yeah," she said, "I saw that one. They tried to attack Diplomacy 004."

Ever since the Quarian's had made peace with the Geth, and they had each gained individuality, they had decided to give themselves names to distinguish themselves. They often based their names on the most obvious aspects of their personalities, or their individual talents. It wasn't too different from the way Hanar soul names worked. However, multiple Geth shared similar talents or personalities, they had to share names, so to avoid confusion, they gave themselves numbers that followed their names.

Since the Geth were synthetics, and therefore, had no biotic powers, the biotic underground had ranked them high on their shit list.

"The more trouble these morons cause," I said, "the more people will fear biotics. Why can't they see that?"

"I don't know," Kleena said, "but at least they were stopped, right?"

"Yes," I agreed, "but they'll be back."

"In other news," the reporter on my omni-screen continued, "There have been unconfirmed reports of several unidentified ships lurking around the Elmana cluster. The Council has so far given no comment on the matter."

"Oh, boy," I said.

"Are you watching frequency five-eight-four," Sargent Liorne'Kreyne asked from the next bunk over. She had her omni-tool up as well.

"Yep," I affirmed. "Think it's the Yahg?"

"Who else," Liorne asked.

The Elmana star cluster was just one secondary mass relay away from the Yahg's Den, a small star cluster that, as the name implied, contained the home system of the Yahg race. At the time of the Reaper invasion, it had been reported that the Yahg were close to completing their first starship. In only a decade since, they had spread out through their entire solar system.

And now it appeared as if they had already found the mass relay located in the star system three light years from Parnack.

"You have to give them credit," I said, "The Yahg advance fast."

"Things are going to get bloody, am I right," Kleena asked.

"Given the Yahg's typical disposition," Liorne considered, "most likely."

A tone sounded on my omni-tool; I had received a message. I opened up my electronic mailbox and opened the message. The sender was addressed Mom&Dad.

I opened the e-mail from my parents. It only had two words: Call us!

I stretched my body out on my bed, and quickly got to my feet.

"Going somewhere, Neila," Liorne inquired.

"I need to make a call," I answered.

I grabbed a fresh tank top from my footlocker and left the barracks for the comm center.

Before I got a quarter of the way there, however, I had nearly bumped into Krush in the main corridor. He was holding a Krogan hammer at the ready. He told me that he had use one such hammer during the Reaper war, though he had never shown it to anyone. It was much smaller than I had imagined it.

The seven-foot dinosaur looked down at me with a mischievous smile.

"Hello, Sargent Zorah," he said to me.

"Hello Gunnery Sargent," I replied cautiously, "Something on your mind?"

"Yes, actually," He huffed. His smile suddenly faded. "Do you know what this is?"

"Your war hammer," I asked.

I suddenly heard the telltale sound of heavy footfalls step up behind me. I slowly turned my head and saw that three other Krogan had stepped from an intersecting corridor behind me. One of them was Forsan Vintaar, one of Krusch's drinking buddies. I did not recognize the second one.

"Your half right, Quarian," Vintaar said, "That is a war hammer."

"But it's not _my_ war hammer," Krusch said. He gripped the hammer at the base of the head with his right hand.

He held the hammer out to me. "It's yours."

I did a double take. I looked down at the hammer, then back to the two Krogan behind me. They nodded their heads.

For a moment I was stunned with silence. Never in my life have I heard of the Krogan doing something like this.

I tried to speak, but all I could say was, "Whaaa?"

"It's a gift," Krusch explained, his smile back.

"I made it," the unknown Krogan said to me.

"Don't stroke your ego, Zink," Krusch said.

It hit me. I have heard of a Krogan on the base named Zink, but have never met him. He was a weapon's mechanic, specializing in manufacturing and repairing the weapons for the Krogan soldiers on the base.

Krusch had spoken of him before. Zink and Vintaar were members of Krusch's Krantt from their days on Tuchanka before the genophage was cured. They hunted down dangerous beasts of burden for the Forsan clan, including Thresher Maws.

I looked down at the hammer again. Now I understood why it looked so small, relatively speaking. It was made for a non-Krogan.

Not wishing to insult them by waiting, I regained my composure and gripped the hammer with both hands. As soon as Krusch let go of it, I fell to one knee, the hammer's weight almost being too much to hold.

"I told you it was too heavy," Vintaar said to Zink.

"Channel your biotics into it," Zink said.

Heeding his advice, I focused and placed the hammer in a mass-reducing field.

"Ah, that's better," I said, "but I don't understand. Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful, but why did you go to the trouble of making me this?"

"You have to ask," Vintaar remarked.

"I won't lie to you, ma'am," Krusch said, his tone suddenly serious, "I've hunted down and killed many Thresher Maws…"

"Ahem," voiced his companions.

"…with the help of my krannt. We have more experience hunting down worms than most people. But I have to admit, that red Maw was something else. I'm not certain that I could have beaten it. I emptied my entire supply of rockets trying to bring that thing down, but I only scored two hits."

"Three hits, actually," I interrupted, remembering the sudden force I felt while still stuck in the monsters throat, "I felt them."

"Oh," Krusch said, "That must have been…a unique experience. Anyway, I'm not certain that I could have beaten that thing…don't tell anyone I said that."

I made a lip-zipping motion.

"But you brought that thing down in a way I never thought possible. You've shown a will to survive that is rare even among the Krogan. And I am honored to say that I was there to witness it."

"It's rare for anyone to impress the boss," Zink said, "and anyone who impresses Krusch impresses us."

"That's right," Vintaar said. Suddenly, one-by-one, all three Krogan pulled their own war hammers from their backs. They were the size I had originally imagined.

"So this is our way of showing you our respect," Krusch said, "And we want you to know that you can be a part of our Krantt any day."

A legion of goose bumps instantly formed on my body, and my heart was beating rapidly. The respect shown to me by those three Krogan made me feel…really good.

All three Krogan lifted their hammers and collided them in the air.

"Korbal!," they chanted.

"They looked down to me expectantly. I smiled and connected the head of my hammer with theirs. "Korbal," I said. Urdnot Wrex also taught me what that word meant.

"Thank you," I said, "I'm very honored. Perhaps later, though, you could teach me the pointers of this thing. I've never used one before."

"Of course," Vintaar said.

"Great," I said, "For now, though, I should go. I have a previous engagement."

"Of course, ma'am," Krusch said, "Hunt well, Zorah."

"You too."

After a stop at the armory to put my new hammer in my locker, followed by another stop at Baratus's office for permission to make a call, I double-timed it to the communication center. I walked up to comm-officer Llen Don, a well-aged Volus. Comm-specialist Don was tougher than he looked, having earned a fair amount of combat experience fighting the Reapers.

"Hello, Sargent Major Zorah," Don greeted, "Can I help you?"

"I need to make a personal call," I said as I handed him my notice of authorization.

Don quickly confirmed my clearance, and pressed a button on his desk that opened one of the extranet terminal booths to my right.

"Okay," Don said, "Now I know you're familiar with this, but it is my duty to go over the rules every time. Each call is ten credits a minute. Your calls will be monitored and recorded for security purposes, and you call is limited to a maximum of fifteen galactic standard minutes."

"Understood," I said. I headed into the booth and sealed it.

I activated the terminal and placed a call to my parents' house on Rannoch.

The vid-screen was quickly filled by an image of my mother, Tali'Zorah. My Human father, Gabriel Shepard soon appeared next to her.

"Hello mother. Hello father."

"Is what I've heard true," my father asked me, "You were eaten by a Thresher Maw?"

"My day is going well, by the way," I remarked, "Thanks for asking, Dad."

"Sorry," my dad said, calming down. "We've only just heard what happened. We were worried."

"Yes," mom said, "We know how much you hate worms, especially Thresher Maws. We wanted to be sure you were okay. That must have been horrible."

"It was terrifying," I said, "But I'm just fine. The docs say I'm okay, though I was sore for a couple of days."

"Glad to hear it," my father said with much relief. "You know, you've made some waves, Neila."

"Tell me about it," I said, thinking of the hammer Krusch gave me.

"When Pazu heard about what you did," mom laughed, "his eyes almost popped out of his skull."

"Really," I asked, "How is he doing anyway?"

"He's still serving on the _Klesin,_" mom answered. "The last time we spoke with him, he said things were pretty calm."

My younger brother, Pazu'Zorah was my parents' third born child. I am the first-born child, older than Pazu by almost four years. Like me, Pazu joined the Quarian marines when he came of age. He was a nice guy, although a bit of a womanizer.

The _Klesin_ was a Quarian warship that patrolled our colony worlds. After peace was made with the Geth, the Quarians had focused on rebuilding on Rannoch. Given that our population had dropped drastically after the battle for Rannoch, we wouldn't be able to repopulate our old colonies, or many new ones for a long time.

Since the end of the Reaper invasion, the Qurians had managed to restore our weakened immune systems, and our population had increased dramatically. Our population was just over seven hundred million on Rannoch, though that still was not enough to spread out to our colonies again.

Warships like the _Klesin_ were assigned to protect pilot colonies on our old world to protect them from raiders looking to plunder the remains of our old cities, or Vorcha vagrants looking for a place to take for their own. Once our population had grown enough, we would repopulate the galaxy.

My two younger sisters had chosen a path different from my brother's or mine.

Minna'Zorah, the second born had chosen a career in galactic politics, which turned out to be a surprise to all of us, given her lethargic nature. During her free time, all she would ever do was sleep.

Minna was a diplomat on the Citadel, helping the Quarian race reclaim their place in galactic society. About three years ago she had married another Quarian diplomat named Tenrik'Lenos, though she had insisted on keeping her own clan name. The couple had recently given birth to their first child, a son they named Gen. Mom and Dad were overjoyed when they learned that they were going to be grandparents.

Vala'Zorah, the youngest had been known for her beautiful voice ever since she was a child. She had become a successful singer and songwriter, one of the first Quarian individuals to do so in over three hundred years. I am always sure to update my omni-tool's music player with her newest songs.

"It's been quiet out there for a while," I observed. "No Vorcha trying to muscle their way in?"

"Not many," dad said, "I think you probably scared them off after that incident on Lerikah."

My omni-tool suddenly buzzed. I had received a message from General Baratus requesting my presence in his office.

"Oh, crud," I said, "The brass is calling me."

"Okay, then," dad said, "we'll leave you to it then. Be careful out there."

"I will," I said, "I love you guys."

"We love you too," mom said, "Keelah'Selai."

I cut the connection, and exited the terminal booth. After paying for my use of it, I bid Don a friendly farewell, and headed for the General's office.

**The last chapter will serve as the epilogue, but it won't be told from Neila's point of view. It will be told from a third person perspective and will be rather short.**

**Trivia: I decided not to do the scene with Baratus and Neila, because my power is running low. I'll just sum it up for you. Neila'Zorah was promoted from Sargent Major to Second Lieutenant. Horray **


	5. Epilogue

**The Epilogue. A reminder: this last chapter is not told from Neila's point of view, nor is it in the first person. It sets the stage for the next story.**

**October 5, 2219**

**Spectre Offices**

**Citadel Embassies**

Donya Mohsen stood in the Spectre office on the Citadel. The holographic projections of the four Councilors stood in front of him. The battle hardened Human Spectre had finished laying out her proposal to the council.

"I will admit," Jentaitus, the Turian Councilor, said, "She shows promise. But Are you sure she can handle what your planning Mohsen."

Donya Mohsen, the fifth Human to ever become a Spectre, was an experienced Alliance soldier in her mid-fifties. When her biotic powers manifested, She was sent to Grissom Academy to develop her abilities. As soon as she graduated, she became an Alliance Marine.

Mohsen had fought out the entirety of the Reaper war on Earth, and had survived to tell the tale.

"I don't know who else could," Mohsen answered, "If the mission is to succeed, we need someone as resourceful and willful as she is. And her Biotics are sure to get her in."

"The biotic underground is very cautious about who they let in," Tevos, the Asari Councilor, pointed out, "They will certainly see the value in her powers."

"Exactly," Mohsen agreed, "and her psych profile indicates that she is very calm under pressure. And if she can fight her way out of a Thresher Maw, she can take on a bunch of biotic fanatics."

"Keep in mind," Tuleen, the Salarian Councilor, advised, "Biotic fanatics are different from a giant worm."

"We'll only get one chance at this, Mohsen," warned Douglas, the Human Councilor, "If she blows it…"

"That's always a risk, sir," Mohsen said, "but I have feeling that this will work."

All four Councilors looked at one another, and back to Mohsen.

"Very well," Tevos said, "The Council hereby authorizes your request, and will grant you the necessary resources to see this mission through."

"Be sure to evaluate her as the mission unfolds," Douglas said, "We will be awaiting your final recommendation after the mission is complete."

"Understood," Mohsen said.

With that, the Counselors' holograms faded.

**The end…for now.**


End file.
